Electrical input/output (I/O) standards define electrical properties such as operating voltage, driving current, level-switching behavior, etc., for communicative exchanges between components of a system. One class of I/O standards, commonly referred to as voltage-referenced, involves reference to a supplied voltage to determine the high/low state of signals. A voltage-referenced standard may provide for higher data transfer speeds with smaller voltage swings.
In typical operation, a platform implementing a voltage-referenced standard may use a reference voltage generator disposed on a motherboard to supply a reference voltage to various system components, such as, a central processing unit and a chipset. The reference voltage may be provided directly to the I/O buffer of the components to be used for interpreting/generating incoming/outgoing data signals. Unfortunately, dependence upon the reference voltage off of the motherboard as the component reference voltage may limit the effectiveness of the platform. A component may be forced to adapt to a reference voltage common to the platform without regard for the margins that are most suitable to the particular component. Still other components may be entirely incompatible with the platform reference voltage.